Race Riots In America In The 1920's

America in the 1920-’s was an age of change. Some may have called this age “The Roaring Twenties”. It was a time of transformation when prohibition, jazz, and migration shaped the American landscape. One issue in particular, however, shook America: racism. A majority of the racial tensions were between the African Americans and the whites. Animosity grew with issues such as segregation, civil rights and lynching-’s, which often led to race riots. Author Alfred L. Brophy wrote a book titled Reconstructing the Dreamland, which described in detail one of the deadliest race riots in America: The Tulsa Riot of 1921, using sources, such as “the observations of black journalists, reminiscences by African American witnesses, briefs written by black

Some have called it the “Oil Capital” of the world. “Greenwood was largely a self-sufficient community, with a school, a hospital, hotels, grocery, drug, and clothing stores, two newspapers, and two movie theaters” (Brophy, 2002). For the most part, Greenwood appeared similar to other communities, with the exception of being the black section of Tulsa. Greenwood was often referred to as “Little Africa,”- but it was a place where blacks lived rather freely. Many of the residents in Greenwood worked in the white section of Tulsa, which is located across the railroad tracks. Inequality was an issue which angered residents at this time. They believed that although there was still segregation, blacks and whites should receive equal treatment, specifically stating “black schools should be equal in funding and quality to white schools, blacks should be allowed to register to vote and serve on juries on the same terms as whites; police officers should treat blacks with the same respect they accorded whites” (Brophy,

A black man, Dick Rowland, was accused of attacking a young white female in an elevator. After reading about the alleged attack, there had been talk of a lynching in town. Rowland was accompanied by officers and had been held in custody at the top of the Courthouse. Black Tulsans arrived in front of the courthouse to offer their protection of Dick Rowland in order to prevent a lynching. Blacks were taking lynching-‘s seriously due to a vast number of executions in the past. “In 1919, seventy-six blacks had been lynched, which was the worst toll in fifteen years”. (Boyer et al, 2014) When white Tulsans heard of the gathering, they decided to congregate at the courthouse. Soon enough, shots were fired from an occupant’s gun and the riot